It is well known that cleaning paint brushes is necessary after each use in order to preserve them. To effectively clean brushes with paint in their fibers, they must be immersed and soaked in an appropriate cleaning fluid which acts as a paint solvent.
The problem in doing this routinely is finding an empty, clean, properly sized container, and a device for holding and suspending the brush in it. Recleaning and storing said container is also necessary if one wishes to use it again.
Inventions for racks which make cleaning paint brushes easier are usually of the type where a rack for holding brushes can be temporarily attached to a container for holding cleaning fluid, usually an empty paint can, so that the brush fibers are suspended in the fluid until the paint is softened and falls away from said fibers to the bottom of the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,852,144 describes one such rack comprising two rods for clinching a paint brush and suspending it in a can. U.S. Pat. No. 2,310,533 describes a rack which may be adjusted to attach to different sizes of container. It is also equipped with clamps for holding several brushes simultaneously. U.S. Pat. No. 3,536,285 describes a bracket which clips onto the side of a can and will adjustably suspend a brush inside it. U.S. Pat. No. 2,080,655 describes a container subdivided by rows of perforated plates for holding a multiplicity of brushes in a bath of fluid, so that the brush fibers are maintained in a soft and correctly shaped condition.
All of the above inventions have the disadvantage of requiring the availability of a relatively large, sturdy, and empty container.
Another disadvantage is that these large containers would require considerable amounts of cleaning fluid to fill them to a sufficient depth for the necessary brush fiber immersion.
None of these inventions would be practical for cleaning several paint brushes with different paint colors and paint bases simultaneously, as they all use only one container of solvent at a time. For example, brushes with strongly died paint would contaminate ones with white paint. Brushes using water and oil base paint could not be cleaned together.